Does this make me a horrible person?

[Pistachio101]

After watching comic relief in the UK last night. It does become quite hard to care for the tens of thousands of japanese who have died when they said that 2000 kids in Africa die from malnutrition/malaria/aids (I can't remember which one it was) every day. So although I do partially agree with you, it should'nt be too hard to at least pretend to care even if you don't in reality.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I actually felt the same way about the uprisings in Egypt and Lybia. In the first week it was pretty interesting, but after week 2 I was getting sick and tired of hearing about it on the news constantly.

I didn't particularly want to see or hear too much about the disaster in Japan either. I know it's horrible and the people over there are suffering greatly, but I rather not be reminded of that 24/7.

 

[FamoFunk]

After watching comic relief in the UK last night. It does become quite hard to care for the tens of thousands of japanese who have died when they said that 2000 kids in Africa die from malnutrition/malaria/aids (I can't remember which one it was) every day. So although I do partially agree with you, it should'nt be too hard to at least pretend to care even if you don't in reality.

They're lucky in the sence of we donate millions and millions and millions (about 75million already yesterday?) to them every year, we won't be doing that with anyone else.

OP - You're honest, and that's cool, just I gues you should just smile and nod rather than full out tell everyone you don't wanna hear about it. Save an argument and Hitler shit, right?

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Does it make me a horrible person that I really get pissed off whenever someone mentions Japan since the Earthquake and tsunami incident?

It's not that I don't CARE, exactly, I just don't want to hear about it all the time but nobody seems to want to shut up about it. It just makes me feel really guilty because whenever I tell someone "can you shut up about Japan, for god sake!" they treat me like I'm Hitler all of a sudden and I feel kind of bad about my thinking about this.

Give this man(?) a cookie! He gets it! I mean GEZE! Even my coworkers in Japan aren't walking around moaning about it. They're working to raise money right now yeah, but they're not going "ONOES! TEH TSUNAMIZ MEK MAH HART SAD! /CRAI!11!1" They balls up, dig, and deal with it.

I have such admiration for that attitude.

I am a man. Thought I'd stress that. No matter how many scarves I own or how much Lady GaGa I listen to, I am a man.

And it's kinda a weird statement when people IN Japan are complaining less than people who aren't. They're working to fix it, whereas people elsewhere are just talking about it, saying stuff constantly like "I feel so sorry for them", and my particular least favourite idiotic statement: "my prayers go out to their families". Prayers are all fine and good...money and ACTUAL support would be more helpful, I feel.

 

[Zhukov]

No. Well... not exactly.

But there's really no need to tell people to shut up about it. It's a big event. Thousands died. Reactors are melting down. People will talk about it. People will want to express how they feel about it.

Not caring doesn't make you a horrible person. But telling off those who do care is quite the dick move.

 

[misty55]

Does it make me a horrible person that I really get pissed off whenever someone mentions Japan since the Earthquake and tsunami incident?

It's not that I don't CARE, exactly, I just don't want to hear about it all the time but nobody seems to want to shut up about it. It just makes me feel really guilty because whenever I tell someone "can you shut up about Japan, for god sake!" they treat me like I'm Hitler all of a sudden and I feel kind of bad about my thinking about this.

Hitler would have been the 1st to help Japan out lol

 

[Thaluikhain]

I actually felt the same way about the uprisings in Egypt and Lybia. In the first week it was pretty interesting, but after week 2 I was getting sick and tired of hearing about it on the news constantly.

I dunno...in Libya, for example, things were constantly happening.

With Japan, it seems to be "You know the tsunami that happened last week? It still hasn't magically un-happened yet...we have more footage of destroyed houses, and we'll ask someone what it was like watching their mum die".

If there was more coverage of actual new news, I wouldn't mind. What measures are the Japanese government taking, exactly? Which countries have sent how many rescue teams? That sort of thing would be alot better than constant "this bad thing was bad".

 

[LandoCristo]

No, not really. I donated some spare money when the collection boxes came around my school, but past that, there's nothing I am able to do to help, and hearing about it isn't going to change that.

 

[ChiryX]

Nope I think ppl who "care" are only doing it because they think they are supposed to. The only ppl that actually matter on this are the ones donating money and no I havent done it myself ^^

 

[binvjoh]

Depends.

I don't want to be constantly reminded of it either unless people are actually having a serious discussion or bringing new news.

 

[Illesdan]

I actually have more respect for the Japanese during this disaster than I've had for other places (US included) and their umpteen disasters and waiting around for the goverment, foreign aid or just going on a looting/hoarding rampage that does more harm than good.

Help where you can if you can. If you can't help physically or monitarily, then just don't worry about it. Some other disaster will be waiting around the corner which may hit closer than you think.

I worked with FEMA when the four hurricanes pounded the East Coast several years ago, and the stupidity of people during a disaster situation is amazing. I saw vehicles stranded along side the road because people were driving around LOOKING FOR GAS TO PUT IN THEIR CAR. We were supposed to deliver water to downtown Pensicola, Florida only to be told that we couldn't deliver because there was widespread looting and the warehouse distribution manager wasn't going to accept any deliveries for fear of getting killed.

Help out your fellow man in a crisis situation. Don't run around like a chicken with your head cut off. It doesn't do any good, and all your doing is giving the media material for the six o'clock news.

 

[Sarah Frazier]

It was a big thing when it happened, and of course it's a tragedy that so many people are dead and homeless, but I do agree that the major catastrophy is over so why drag everyone back through the mud every day? Has there been another big earthquake? Has an island literally vanished? Are more power plants melting down? Those things are worth a mention, but I'm pretty sure people know quite well already what happened a few days ago.

I hope that doesn't sound heartless, but after watching the same thirty second clips played every five minutes made me want to hear about anything else. Perhaps coverage of how the people are recovering without making it sound like a downhill battle would be nice... A change from how "miserable and hopeless" the survivors are.

 

[Vohn_exel]

Does it make me a horrible person that I really get pissed off whenever someone mentions Japan since the Earthquake and tsunami incident?

It's not that I don't CARE, exactly, I just don't want to hear about it all the time but nobody seems to want to shut up about it. It just makes me feel really guilty because whenever I tell someone "can you shut up about Japan, for god sake!" they treat me like I'm Hitler all of a sudden and I feel kind of bad about my thinking about this.

It's not what you're saying, it's how you're saying it. It's not a bad thing to be tired of hearing about an event that you have no involvement in and have no stake in. You've been blasted by news of it, I'm sure, so you probably don't want to hear anymore.

However, saying it like that is just asking to piss off someone. Try to ask then politely to change the subject, or mention that you've heard enough news about Japan instead. BTW, speaking of Japan, I hear...

 

[Sabazios]

You're not expected to care about every occurrence of suffering in the world, because there is too much to follow, and these things happen.

But this is the news. Things are occurring that are changing the very landscape of the world. If you think this will not affect you in the slightest, you are a fool. This will have an effect on the rest of the world in a roundabout way. You're on a video game site, for one thing. Need I say more?

 

[SaberXIII]

Not as such. I'm all for worrying about them, and I'd much rather that alot of them hadn't died, but since it doesn't affect me I see no reason to get so into it, basically the same as you.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Does it make me a horrible person that I really get pissed off whenever someone mentions Japan since the Earthquake and tsunami incident?

It's not that I don't CARE, exactly, I just don't want to hear about it all the time but nobody seems to want to shut up about it. It just makes me feel really guilty because whenever I tell someone "can you shut up about Japan, for god sake!" they treat me like I'm Hitler all of a sudden and I feel kind of bad about my thinking about this.

It's not what you're saying, it's how you're saying it. It's not a bad thing to be tired of hearing about an event that you have no involvement in and have no stake in. You've been blasted by news of it, I'm sure, so you probably don't want to hear anymore.

However, saying it like that is just asking to piss off someone. Try to ask then politely to change the subject, or mention that you've heard enough news about Japan instead. BTW, speaking of Japan, I hear...

On the particular day of my dick-ish outburst I put in my OP, I'd been with this girl ALL day and every time I'd try talking to her about something she'd loop the conversation back to talking about Japan in that very irritating "it's, like, SOOOOOO awful and stuff" kind of way girls like her talk about everything. I'd already asked her to stop bringing it up because, if I'm honest, hearing about it bums me out. She kept saying she wouldn't mention it except when she absolutely had to, but then she'd go right back to whining about the situation.

So yeah, I snapped. I don't normally say it as aggressively as that, but no matter how I say it people get pissy with me about 'not giving a shit' about the country. Even accused me of being racist a couple of times, and turned "sorry, but I really don't like hearing about it so much" to mean, essentially, that I hate all Japanese people and would be happy if their country sank into the ocean.

 

[mikeysnakes]

I started an account just to answer this question...

I live in Japan. I live in Mie prefecture in a tiny town called Komono though the JET program.

I am so...sick...of the sensationalism that CNN, Fox and EVERY OTHER FREAKING NEWS STATION IS HAMMING TO YOU PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the flat out LIES about current circumstances!

I couldn't get my family and friends to shut up about making me come home. I live 300 miles away from that mess.

Is it bad? Yeah. I donated about $103 bucks to a local fundraiser to help out the Tohoku region, but people are taking it WAY to freaking FAR! Every day it's "I'm fine...I'm fine...we had a mag 3 aftershock last night...No I'm not irradiated. No I'm not going to die."

"BUT IT'S NOT WORTH YOUR LIFE!" Yeah... which is why my life isn't in danger. I'm not gonna punk out of my job because there's a huge disaster to the north of me. That's like living in Florida, and packing up your life, job, family, everything, just because there was one bad hurricane.

That's another thing. I just heard from my family that Iodine pills are sold out in the states... WHY?!?!?!?!?!?!?! You really think with the way the wind currents work Cali is gonna suffer some huge fallout?

JUST!!!! UGRHGLHJPOHJJWKEHFJODSHJFKEJGKHPIJSDHNFJKSN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do your part. If you wanna help, donate. It's what the Tohoku region really needs. If you wanna fly over here in a month and help clean up, that's awesome. I'm taking nenkyu from work to do the same, or I hope I can. But for the love of FREAKING GOD! Stop FREAKING OUT!!! The people here have kept a cool head though and though. They queue up for food. They shelter people who have none. Everything has been done orderly. If these people aren't freaking the heck out about this WHY SHOULD YOU?! Give, Pray, Help. Don't spasm cause CNN told you the Japanese are "On the brink of despair." and "Are revolting against the government." Don't be sheep. Don't feed the news trolls.

To answer your question. No you are not a bad person. In fact, I wish people back home were just a little bit more like you.

Thank you, I'm in Tochigi Prefecture and what you're saying is so true, people have even compiled a list of the worst reports on this situation: http://jpquake.wikispaces.com/Journalist+Wall+of+Shame

I honestly think the worst damage done is going to be the mental damage done to people, ironically to west coast americans who will probably never be absorb any of the radiation from Daiichi no matter what happens. And almost all foreign newspapers are adding so much fuel to this fire.